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Genealogies of Genesis
The genealogies of Genesis (in chapters 4, 5 and 11 of the Book of Genesis) record the descendants of Adam and Eve to Abraham, including the age at which each patriarch fathered his named son and the number of years he lived thereafter. The genealogy contains two branches: for Cain, given in Chapter 4, and for Seth in Chapter 5. Genesis chapter 10, the Table of Nations records the populating of the Earth by Noah's descendants, and is not strictly a genealogy but an ethnography). Enumerated genealogy Three versions of the Genesis genealogy exist: the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the Greek Septuagint, and the Hebrew Samaritan Pentateuch. Translations from the Masoretic Text are preferred by Western Christians, including Roman Catholics and Protestants and by followers of Orthodox Judaism, whereas the Greek version is preferred by Eastern Christians, including Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, Ethiopic, Jacobite, and Armenian. The Samaritan version of the Pentateuch is used mainly by the Samaritans. The Vulgate, published by Jerome in 405, is a Latin translation based on a Hebrew Tanakh compiled near the end of the first century, whereas the Septuagint was reportedly written by seventy translators in Egypt near the middle of the third century BC based on an earlier version of the Tanakh. Both of these translations have, like the Masoretic Text, been the basis for translations into numerous vernacular languages. The following table lists the patriarchs that appear in the Vulgate and the Septuagint, but their names are spelled as they appear in the King James Version of the Bible. Their year of birth differs according to the Vulgate or the Septuagint. (AM = Anno Mundi = in the year of the world). Also given is each patriarch's age at the birth of his named son and the age of the patriarch's death. Cainan, born after the Flood, is mentioned in the Septuagint but not the Vulgate. Methuselah survived the Flood according to the Vatican text of the Septuagint (but not the Vulgate), even though he was not on Noah's Ark; other manuscripts of the Septuagint, such as the Codex Alexandrinus, have Methuselah dying before the Flood.Genzlinger, Darrell, 2003. 'Critique on Africanus' Chronology'.http://www.darrellgenzlinger.com/Page7ACdws.html (The wives are added to this table from a 2nd century BC Jewish work called the Book of Jubilees): ¹: The names of these wives are recorded in the Book of Jubilees, not Genesis. The names of the other wives are recorded in both. ²: According to most interpretations, including the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews, Enoch did not die,Hebrews 11:5, King James Version. but was taken away by God (at an age of 365). Genesis states that Enoch "walked with God; and he was not; for God took him."Genesis 5:24, King James Version. Genealogies of Cain and Seth Three of Adam and Eve's children are named. The main genealogy is via Seth, who was born after Cain, the firstborn son, slew his brother Abel. A genealogy for Cain is also given (in ), with some names similar to those for Seth's descendants. No years are provided, so the following table simply lines the descendants up by generation. (for a continuation of this family tree through the line of Shem, see Abraham's Family Tree) Genesis numbers Nearly all modern translations of Genesis are derived from the Masoretic (Hebrew) Text. But there are also two other versions of Genesis: the Samaritan (in an early Hebrew script) and the Septuagint (a Greek translation of an early Hebrew text). Although, scholars are aware that these three versions of Genesis 5 have different numbers, people who have seen only the commonly available translations are often unaware that other versions exist. The numbers in the Masoretic, Samaritan, and Lucianic Septuagint versions of Genesis are shown in this table:John Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis, T&T Clark, Endinburgh (original edition 1910, this edition 1930), p. 134. ¹: The names of these wives are recorded in the Book of Jubilees, not Genesis. The names of the other wives are recorded in both. ²: According to most interpretations, including the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews, Enoch did not die,Hebrews 11:5, King James Version. but was taken away by God (at an age of 365). Genesis states that Enoch "walked with God; and he was not; for God took him."Genesis 5:24, King James Version. Differences in the Genesis 5 numbers A comparison of the Genesis 5 numbers (Adam through Noah) in the above table shows that the ages when the sons were born plus the remainders equal the totals given in each version, but each version uses different numbers to arrive at these totals. The three versions agree on some of the total ages at death, but many of the other numbers differ by exactly 100. The Septuagint numbers for the ages of the fathers at the birth of their sons, are in many instances 100 greater than the corresponding numbers in the other two versions. The Samaritan chronology has Jared and Methuselah dying in Noah's 600th year, the year of the Flood. The Masoretic chronology also has Methuselah dying in Noah’s 600th year, but the Masoretic version uses a different chronology than the Samaritan version. The Lucianic text of the Septuagint has Methuselah surviving the Flood and therefore the 100 year differences were not an attempt by the Septuagint editors to have Jared, Methuselah, or Lamech die during or prior to the Flood.Ralph W. Klein, "Archaic Chronologies and the Textual History of the Old Testament", Harvard Theol Review, 67 (1974), pp. 255-263. Some scholarsGerhard Larsson, "The Chronology of the Pentateuch: A Comparison of the MT and LXX", Journal of Biblical Literature, 102 (1983), pp. 401-409. argue that the differences between the Masoretic and Septuagint chronologies in Genesis 5 can be explained as alterations designed to rationalize a primary Masoretic system of chronology to a later Septuagint system. According to another scholar,Emanual Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), pp. 11, 352. to assume that the Masoretic Text is primary "is a mere convention for the scholarly world" and "it should not be postulated in advance that MT reflects the original text of the biblical books better than the other texts." Some commentators argue that the Genesis 5 numbers were intended to be read at face value, as solar years and not months, because attempts to rationalize the numbers by translating "years" as "months" results in some of the Genesis 5 people fathering children when they were five years old (if the Masoretic chronology is assumed to be primary).Joseph Blenkinsopp, The Pentateuch, Doubleday (1992), p. 74, ISBN 0-385-41207-X. The scholarly translation of the Hebrew Pentateuch into Greek at Alexandria, Egypt in about 280 BC worked off a Hebrew text that was edited in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.Charles M. Laymon (editor), The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible, Abingdon Press, Nashville (1971), p. 1227. This would be centuries older than the proto–Masoretic Text selected as the official text by the Masoretes.Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (1992), pp. 11, 352. See also * Genealogy of the Bible * Genealogy of Jesus * Timeline of the Bible References *Hall, Jonathan, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity Cambridge U.Press, 1997. *Malkin, Irad, editor, Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity in series Center for Hellenic Studies Colloquia, 5. Harvard University Press, 2001. [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2002/2002-08-12.html Reviewed by Margaret C. Miller in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2002] *Driver, S. R., The Book of Genesis, Westminster Commentaries, 3rd edition, London, UK, Methuen, 1904. *Kautzsch, E. F.: quoted by James Orr, "The Early Narratives of Genesis," in The Fundamentals, Vol. 1, Los Angeles, CA, Biola Press, 1917. *Dillmann, A., Genesis: Critically and Exegetically Expounded, Vol. 1, Edinburgh, UK, T. and T. Clark, 1897, 314. *Custance, Arthur C., The Roots of the Nations.http://custance.org/old/noah/ch1bh.html *Schmandt-Besserat, Denise, How Writing Came About, University of Texas Press, 1996, ISBN 0-292-77704-3. *Etz, Donald V., "The Numbers of Genesis V 3-31: a Suggested Conversion and Its Implications", Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 43, No. 2, 1994, pages 171–187. Notes External links * Hasel, G.F., 1980. "The meaning of the chronogenealogies of Genesis 5 and 11", Origins 7(2):53–70. Genesis Category:Hebrew Bible topics Category:Book of Genesis Category:Torah people Category:Judaism Category:Longevity traditions fr:Généalogie dans la Genèse ru:Библейская родословная uk:Біблійний родовід